Trump and His Racism: Do You Serve Two Masters?

"President Donald Trump's racist comments have legitimized fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color" and 'strongly condemns' the President's remarks, including 'that our fellow Americans who are immigrants, and thosewho may look to the President like immigrants, should 'go back' to other countries.'"

This resolution comes after Trump suggested in a series of tweets that the congresswomen – Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts – should "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came."

The House voted on Pelosi's words: The Democratic-controlled House voted not to strike Pelosi's comments from the record and to allow Pelosi to speak on the floor of the House again. The vote was 240 to 187. Four Republicans and one independent – Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan – supported the resolution as well as all Democrats who voted.

What Pelosi said about her speech: She told reporters she had "absolutely" no regrets for her language describing the resolution. Why should she?

I am sure the Trump faithful and most lily-livered Republicans fearing negative political consequences will dismiss Trump's latest racist remarks as “just Donald Trump being Donald Trump.” With a long history of bigoted comments, Trump has once again confirmed his congenital prejudice. Since October 1973, when the Justice Department sued Trump and his father Fred for barring blacks from their apartment buildings, it has been known that the president is a racist.

The question remains: Why do people continue to support a person in the White House with such racist views? The answer is simple, yet shocking: This quality is central to his politics and to his appeal.

All Trump supporters, especially supposedly omnibenevolent evangelicals, will eventually have to ask themselves if they should go on believing Trump has sufficient character to hold the presidency. I believe they will simply dismiss his bigotry as something of which they have no concern. This is deeply troubling and indicative of the real state of civil rights in 21^st century America.

Donald Trump, himself, admitted to “not being concerned” about white nationalist groups finding “a common cause” with his racist remarks because “many people agree with him.” And, confirmation of support for his bigotry is evidenced by those who love his daily tweets, campaign rallies, and executive orders. The faithful, like programmed automatons on steroids, parrot his messages of hatred for anything that doesn't meet his view of “making America great again.” Of course, after Trump's divisive tirades, political parasites in the GOP like Lindsey Graham debase themselves by supporting his unquestionable bigotry.

Allow me to repeat my thesis: Racism is central to Trump's politics and to his appeal. We DO NOT live in a post-racist America. Systemic racism infects the very structure of American society. It is in our schools, our offices, our courts, our police departments, and in our government – and it is now boldly implanted in our executive branch. Trump has emboldened supremacists, hate crimes, and, most regrettably, those who had suppressed their fear and loathing for people of color.

Sociologist Eduardo Bonilla-Silva has said, "The main problem nowadays is not the folks with the hoods, but the folks dressed in suits."

These racists fear minorities will take their wealth, their jobs, their housing, and their educational opportunities. The truth is that these whites blame minorities for their own lack of ability and initiative. Trump feeds their bruised egos with his own bigoted views, and they are then emboldened to expose their own true feelings of prejudice.

Racism appeals to the Trump minions. They support his white agenda. According to Gallup, the percentage of Americans who agree that black-white relations are good is at a 20-year low. And for the first time since the pollster has asked the question, a majority of blacks rate race relations as bad. The Trump era has set race relations back, and new, deep scars threaten to cripple future progress.

What happens when those with power and influence view the degradation of minorities as a positive political move? Exactly what anyone with a speck of brain would expect. It exposes the systemic racism in our country – all of the policies and practices entrenched in established institutions that harm certain racial groups and help others. Buoyed by a warped sense of empowerment and privilege, marginal people feel justified in seeing the "others" with suspicion and in attributing negative characteristics to an entire group of people. They revert to shouting slogans like “America, love it or leave it. They hate … and hate … and hate.

It is precisely this that results: Those who were, in truth, always racists – despite their hollow claims of loving integration – affirm their prejudice by word, by deed, or by indifference. They latch onto despair and support a bigot. For whatever reason they find convenient, they justify their dark actions. Some do so with claims of adhering to religious tenets, others with claims of patriotism, and still others with views of inherited superiority.

“Prejudice, a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they both begin where reason ends.”

– Harper Lee

If you follow bigotry – no matter your political party, your faith, or your other beliefs – you become complicit in enabling unspeakable hatred. You see, then, no matter what political figure dismisses the obvious for whatever reason, you are responsible. It is NOT Trump acting like Trump. Instead, it IS you acting as you.

“Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.”

– Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre